Brussels, November 2005
Dear Friends,
You have been receiving messages on behalf of the European Coordination for Foreigners’ Right to Family Life
regularly for some time. Our modest organisation wants to continue its fight to gain respect for immigrants’
right to live with their families; we can do so only if we receive the support of associations throughout
Europe. Thus, we are calling on you to join our organisation.
Membership involves a certain number of
opportunities to participate in developing the Coordination’s
policies and in carrying out its actions. This includes taking part in General Assemblies (every other year)
and board meetings (twice a year); receiving information from the secretariat regularly on European
immigration policies; acquiring, through active involvement in the life of the Coordination, what we believe
to be a very necessary European "spirit" for the life of our associations; and using the Coordination website
as a place to publicise the life and activities of member associations.
Membership also includes different means of
supporting the Coordination’s combat: a yearly
contribution, which enables the Coordination to exist and entitles you to take part in the General Assembly;
explicit support for actions decided on by the Coordination's board; placement of a link to the Coordination
website in your association’s website; and when possible, the contribution of ideas and personnel to the
Coordination’s life and activities.
You will find additional information about the Coordination on our website
.
If you think that your organisation should be part of the Coordination, please fill in the attached form and
return it to the address indicated.
Thank you for your attention, and our best wishes for your good work.
For the European Coordination
Antonio Germano Garatto, Chairman
Ruben Urrutia, Treasurer
Main actions of the Coordination in 2005
This past year, the Coordination held its General Assembly, which meets every other year according to the
revised Statutes. On that occasion, we renewed our engagement to continue the struggle to make sure that
immigrants’ family rights are recognized and applied (cf. Newsletter 13: Special General Assembly 2005):
.
In particular, we have been trying to collect data concerning the application of Directive 86/2003/CE on
family reunification of third-country nationals and concerning cases of abuse involving immigrants’ family
rights (cf. Newsletter 13, B.1).
Before the General Assembly, the Coordination stated its reactions to the European Commission’s Green Paper
on an EU-level approach to managing economic migration (cf.
)
In this matter, the Coordination had already given its support to opinions provided by other associations
(cf.
).
As for the Directive, perhaps you already know that on 8 September 2005 Advocate-General Kokott presented her
conclusions as to the inadmissibility of the appeal filed in the Court of Justice of the European Communities
by the European Parliament against Directive 2003/86/CE of 22 September 2003 concerning the right to the
family reunification. We have published a commentary by Claire Rodier of GISTI–Paris on these conclusions (cf.
), and we intend to bring this subject to the attention of the members of the European Parliament. We
will keep you informed through the Newsletter, but you are also welcome to check for developments on our
site.
We also intend to send the Commission our remarks and our reservations concerning the document on the
integration of immigrants recently published by the Commission.
We also need to keep an eye on how the directive on family reunification is applied individually by the
states of the EU (which was supposed to have happened by 3.10.05) and what form Tampere II, the programme for
years to come, takes, as well as on the problem of ratifying the UN Convention on the rights of migrant
workers and their families.
All of this will remain possible if the Coordination receives the support of a large number of concerned
associations.
Thank you for your interest and your participation!
